Movie theatre of Director’s Guild on Sunset Boulevard sinks in complete darkness… I dive into the world of the famous French singer Dalida. After seeing her statue on Montmartre in Paris for the first time, the story of Dalida was engraved in my memory as one of the most tragic women’s lives ever. And here I am reliving these emotions multiplied by… 100! The movie was so emotional and beautiful that I shared every breath, sound and look of Dalida.
When titles appeared on the big screen, I quickly wiped tears from my face. Lights are on, and the last thing I want is to show smudged eyes to the public.
Director Lisa Azuelos, as well as the lead actress stunning Sveva Alvity, appeared on stage for Q&A. Lisa immediately caught my attention. There was something about her personality - soft and strong at the same time, confident and yet modest, highly intellectual and yet gullible - that made me want to write this interview…
We met with Lisa in couple days in her hotel in Beverly Hills. She showed up on time wearing linen ethnic dress, which later I found out she bought from Native American women. She is researching their lives and is planning to do a movie about them. Her hair is damp. She is wearing no perfume and no makeup.
Right now Lisa is a mystery - a mother of three kids, writer, director, producer, a professional partner of her ex-husband - she’s accomplished a lot. Only by living in Hollywood I understand that for a single mother of three doing it all simultaneously is practically ‘mission impossible.’ Well, that makes this conversation even more interesting.
We sit in the shadow by the pool. Our conversation flows, I let it go, undoubtedly knowing that it will come to the right places…
- After my parents got divorced, mother sent me to the boarding school in Switzerland where the rules, let’s say nicely, were stringent. As a child, I needed to feel that I am alive. I was very lonely because I grew up without parents. I wanted to do something material to prove that I exist. I felt like I need to express myself to the world and I was searching for the means… My dad was very strict with me. I thought that as a girl I am always not good enough.
As a teenager, I would go to the movie theatre a lot. And after an hour and a half spent there, I felt better. So for me the idea that after my movie someone may be happier, really motivated me.
Probably, my desire to prove that I am alive and worth of something inspired me to become and an excellent student. I loved going to school. I wanted to be an actress. I graduated very early and needed parent’s permission for work. They insisted on me going to college where I studied finance. I did four years of school, then I went to Paris and worked on the stock market. I hated it! This experience made me realize that I want to work in the movie industry. I quit the job and started working on the set doing anything.
The waiter interrupts Lisa’s story. Suddenly it seems like everyone in Hollywood speaks French. We order drinks and continue…
- Did you go to the school of filmmaking?
- No. But few things indeed helped me to become a filmmaker. The first one happened when I was 20. I traveled to LA and took Robert Mckee scriptwriting class. Back then he was the best in the field. So for me, it was incredible. Then I started working with Luc Besson. These are my two teachers.
I’ve always felt like I have a gift for writing. Since I was a little girl, I would express myself through texts. I’ve always had a diary.
Directing is another thing. I thought I couldn’t do it. But when I was working on the set throwing out the trash, driving people, I watched everyone’s work. I also did production design training. At a certain point, I understood everything about the camera and realized that I don’t need to learn anymore. I was 25 when I did my first movie. A short film. And then…’
Well, at this moment as a listener I expected something like ‘I did my feature film or got an award, but let’s just listen…
- I got married. I’ve felt like Dalida. That’s why I had a great connection with the character. First of all, I felt like I need to be a mother, I need to have kids. Not a wife, not a director, but a mother. That was my way of being alive. It was a powerful feeling.
I got married to someone I did not know and had a baby. We decided to give it a try. At the end of a day, it didn’t work. But we have three kids and two movies together. So it wasn’t that bad. Good training of life.
I wasn’t taking care of my career. I gave more to my husband’s career. He is also a director. So I was writing for him and taking care of kids.
In eleven years we got divorced. I was alone with three kids. I felt strong. I knew how to do movies. I had had successful projects. I wanted to direct.
I made my first feature movie when I was 40. It took a while for me before I made this serious step. It was a long path of co-directing with my husband, of learning, of taking care of my family.
It is true that I suffered as a woman, as a wife. I had to fight for my success. But now I can put it all in my movies, and I can communicate to women that suffer. So at the end of the day, it is good.’
That’s why you chose Dalida’s story?
I am crazy (laughs). I didn’t know that would affect me so much. I had to understand her, to understand myself. This movie is about loneliness and lack of love.
I’ve always felt very melancholic like her. And throughout the work on this movie, I learned a lot about myself. I don’t feel lonely anymore. I had to walk in Dalida’s shadow to find my path.
What touched you the most? - Lisa asks me…
This question caught me off guard, the first what came to my mind was…
Abortion? - somehow I made it sound like a question...
I understand why. You are a young woman and probably plan to have kids. I wanted to get very physical with taking away her child and how it affected the rest of her life. She felt like she would be a lousy mother to her kid, she was very fragile… But it is also important to remember that in 70s things were different.
As we sip on our drinks, Lisa asks, if I like it. She displays this sort of attention towards me throughout the afternoon, never seeming distracted or impatient. She is both gregarious and a good listener. She makes eye contact and holds it.
How do you do it? Being a director is hard enough. You also produce and write, sometimes do it simultaneously for one project, Dalida, for example. And let’s not forget that you have three kids.
Motherhood is the most challenging part.
For me work has always been not easy but a natural part of my life.
I am just writing a story. I work with Pathé (production company), and they are financing my movies. So I don’t worry about the money part. It gives me much confidence.
Now I have a big team, and I give them freedom and sense of responsibility at the same time.
When my kids were little, and we were in the supermarket, I would tell them: ‘If you lose me, you are not going to see me again, so you have to check on me, because I have some stuff to do.’ That’s how I deal with the crew on production. I tell them not to ask me every five minutes about everything, do your own thing. I am not a control freak.
It is easy for me to manage the team. I think my secret is to hire only good people.
If someone is ruining positive vibes, they are gone in no time.
I soon feel like I am in the company of an old friend. She is the bright, scrappy, bookish woman that exuberates creativity even while talking about her life sitting in a shadow by the pool. It feels like it is a set up for another female character in her movie…
Do you sense the difference between working in America and France?
There is a big difference between industries in France and America. Because in America producers have much power, and there are many female producers. In France men are deciding, if we were gonna do a movie. If you want to be a director, you also got to be a writer. Here it is not the same. For filmmakers, it is the training of working hard.
In France, there are many female directors. In LA not that many. In general, over there we are considered as filmmakers. Here it feels different.What is the next chapter in your life?
I’ve been planning all my life until today. I would always say: at this age I want kids, now I will produce, I will do this and that… Now I don’t have a plan. I still have ideas and dreams. I may stop working and just enjoy my life for two-three years, go to retreats, visit my parents, kids. Now my only goal is to be close to people I love (smiles).
And of course, there are so many amazing stories I want to tell…
Alice Guy-Blaché, for example. She is a first female movie maker. She invented fiction movies.
And no one talks about her. She would be a great character. But my next movie would be about
my own life. About this time when kids grow up and a woman faces new chapter… How do
you find yourself and deal with emptiness? It is going to be a comedy.
Will the character find inner peace in herself or she will meet someone?
I don’t want her to meet anyone. I want her to be ready to meet someone and to find inner peace. But first I have to write the story (laughs).
It doesn’t take much but to notice that you pay particular attention to women in your art and life…
I have an NGO in Paris. I am appalled by how much suffering women experience. I created a word gynophobia. Gyno from Greek means a woman and phobia is a fear. Everyone is familiar with the term homophobia. Gynophobia is the same but reflecting the fear of women. People talk about violence against women. But there was no word for it. There are words for every kind of violence, except this one. If there is no word, there is nothing to fight against…
But now it is going to change. It is the end of injustice. There is awakening in the world. Even men doubt their brutality. They are opening their feminine world. And we as women open our masculine world. Fighting for the right to vote, work, express ourselves. But before we were using masculine weapons, forgetting that as women we have our magic power. For that power, we were treated like witches.
Masculine power so far has caused much suffering to our planet. Mother Earth has been raped. It may sound harsh, but if you think about it, this term may be appropriate. Men have been killing it, destroying it, overusing it, the same way they did to women at certain times and places.
There is a term ‘ecofeminism’ that finds plenty of similarities between ecology problems and feminine problems. And that is a kind of feminism that I believe in - the one in which everything is linked.
The lack of feminine energy has been destroying the entire world. And if we continue like that, we are not going to be on this planet in 50 years. It will be the end of it. So far the biggest and the only destructive power on the earth have been humans.
I love the word ‘sisterhood’ or ‘sororitee’ in French. We need that now. – author’s note: this sentence can be used as a separate piece.
What exactly you do for charity?
I am creating artistic events on the subject of gynophobia. For example, film festival.
In some countries, women can’t read. But they can still understand the movies. That’s why I am doing this festival. I did the film, you can find it online, it is called ‘14 Million de Cris’ (14 millions of shouts).
Every year more than 14 millions of underaged girls get married against their will. The short gained popularity in many countries. It made me realize that the image is a sharp political weapon.
First, of, I am not trying to change the world, I am working on myself. I used to be very masculine and rude. I was brought by my father in a rigorous atmosphere, always being chastised for not being good enough, always fighting against the fact that as a woman I can’t do a masterpiece, only men can.
I’ve been doing charity for three years.Surprisingly, I’ve been doing charity project for orphan girls in my home country Belarus for three years as well!
This is precisely how the world is going to change, - points out Lisa. - It is not going to come from politicians or prominent NGOs. Each person will make a difference by changing the world for the best little by little. We have to stop dreaming that a leader will save us. We have this power, and I don’t believe in politics. We hit bottom and, there is no way we are gonna go any lower, it is a time of change.
I also co-produced the movement ‘free the nipple’ in the USA. I know here you show a tit and OMG you can go to jail. With Helena Escow we made this movement. I want to get involved more because I feel like this change is much needed.Are you a feminist?
I love the term women. It is more like ‘let’s be together.’ It is much closer to humanism. If men and women feel happy together, there is no war. It is very simple. I want people to learn how to love each other.
We should have love classes in schools. Teach boys and girls to talk to each other, to be respectful and kind. How can we be more gentle and create more good in this world?What would you advice to a younger generation of women?
Always listen to your quiet inner voice. We are often taught to ignore it. But you should trust your guts, not your head or heart. Women should listen to their inner cycles. Always repeat to yourself: ‘What I am doing is good.’ Don’t judge yourself, be kind to yourself.
The air of Hollywood in 2018 is filled with the idea of women’s rights, in particular, gender equality in the movie industry.
"I do hope that when we include more female storytellers, we will have more of the kinds of women that I recognize in my day to day life. Ones that are proactive have their agencies, don’t just react to the men around them, they have their point of view."
Jessica Chastain caused a tsunami in the cinematic world during her speech at Cannes Film Festival. The tsunami was called women’s representation in the movie industry.
Surprisingly, the actress spoke up for women on the year when for the second time in the long history of Cannes Film Festival a woman won the main award - Sofia Coppola became the best director. And let’s not forget about Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins with stunning Gal Gadot as a lead.
Apparently, since the times of Alice Guy-Blaché so much have been achieved by women in the cinematic world, and we are looking forward to creating, produce even more amazing movies!
All this buzz made me think if women were suppressed or maybe on a subconscious level made their own choice to be better mothers, wives?. It is an eternal fight for ‘gynos.’ But whatever we choose, it is always good to remember how magnificent we are by creation, what incredible powers we were given as women and we better write our own rules rather than try living by the men’s.
This inspirational conversation that I was lucky to share with one of the most talented female directors of our times Lisa Azuelos is the beginning of series of talks with women that change how we think and lit the path to many other fellow women towards happiness, confidence and success.
Dedicate to all my sisters.